''Şahsiyet'' (''Persona'') is a 2018 Turkish

crime drama Crime films, in the broadest sense, is a film genre inspired by and analogous to the crime fiction literary genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and its detection. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combine ...

miniseries A miniseries or mini-series is a television series that tells a story in a predetermined, limited number of episodes. "Limited series" is another more recent US term which is sometimes used interchangeably. , the popularity of miniseries format ...

written by Hakan Günday and directed by

Onur Saylak Arif Onur Saylak (born 12 May 1977) is a Turkish actor, filmmaker and director. He was married for six years to Tuba Büyüküstün, with whom he has twin daughters. Personal life On 28 July 2011, Saylak married the Turkish actress Tuba Büy ...

. The series premiered on 17 March 2018 and was broadcast by puhutv. Haluk Bilginer won the

International Emmy Award The International Emmy Awards, or International Emmys, are part of the extensive range of Emmy Awards for artistic and technical merit for the television industry. Bestowed by the New York–based International Academy of Television Arts and Sc ...

for Best Performance by an Actor for his role as Agah, in ''Şahsiyet''.

Plot summary

Agâh Beyoğlu is a 65-year-old retired court clerk whose spouse died some time ago. Agâh lives alone in an old Ottoman building bearing the name of his deceased spouse, Mebrure, in

Beyoğlu Beyoğlu (, ota, بك‌اوغلی, script=Arab) is a district on the European side of İstanbul, Turkey, separated from the old city (historic peninsula of Constantinople) by the Golden Horn. It was known as the region of Pera (Πέρα, mean ...

. One day, his beloved cat Münir Bey dies, since Agâh forgets to feed him. After the incident, he goes to a doctor to figure out the reasons of his memory impairment and there he is diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. Agâh can't accept the fact that he has Alzheimer's disease and becomes depressed. One day, when Agâh meets his friends at an invitation, he discerns some advantages of his disease and makes a decision which is a turning point. Nevra Elmas is a young and idealistic police-officer working in Istanbul Police Headquarters. She is the only female personnel in the Homicide Department but due to her gender, she experiences

mobbing Mobbing, as a sociological term, means bullying of an individual by a group, in any context, such as a family, peer group, school, workplace, neighborhood, community, or online. When it occurs as physical and emotional abuse in the workplace, ...

by her male co-workers, especially by

misogynist Misogyny () is hatred of, contempt for, or prejudice against women. It is a form of sexism that is used to keep women at a lower social status than men, thus maintaining the societal roles of patriarchy. Misogyny has been widely practiced f ...

Firuz. Her workmates believe that she does not deserve her position in the department and that her assignment is purely and simply due to

benevolent sexism Ambivalent sexism is a theoretical framework which posits that sexism has two sub-components: "hostile sexism" (HS) and "benevolent sexism" (BS). Hostile sexism reflects overtly negative evaluations and stereotypes about a gender (e.g., the ideas t ...

. A serial-killer wearing a cat costume shows up in

Istanbul Istanbul ( , ; tr, İstanbul ), formerly known as Constantinople ( grc-gre, Κωνσταντινούπολις; la, Constantinopolis), is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, serving as the country's economic, ...

. There is a common ground between the victims, Nevra Elmas, and Agâh Beyoğlu: Kambura, a small and conservative district near to Istanbul.

Cast

Reception

Writing for ''

Vatan ''Vatan'' ("Homeland" or "Motherland") is a Turkish daily newspaper founded in 2002 by the Doğan Media Group. The paper was purchased by DK ( Demirören & Karacan) Corporation in April 2011 and was totally acquired by Demirören Holding Demiö ...

'', Oya Doğan criticized the length of the first episode, adding that it "was too long ..85 percent of the first episode was telling who Agah Beyoğlu was". In her article, she mentions that the series initially followed the typical rules set out for web series but later became more like a television series. ''

Sabah Sabah () is a state of Malaysia located in northern Borneo, in the region of East Malaysia. Sabah borders the Malaysian state of Sarawak to the southwest and the North Kalimantan province of Indonesia to the south. The Federal Territory ...

'' writer Ayşe Özyılmazel praised the production quality of the series and described it as "perhaps the best series in the history of Turkish series". In 2020, ''Şahsiyet'' was on the

IMDb IMDb (an abbreviation of Internet Movie Database) is an online database of information related to films, television series, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, p ...

's list of the best serials of all time, ranked 22nd.

Awards and nominations

References

External links

Puhu TV official broadcaster
* {{IMDb title, 7920978, Şahsiyet 2018 Turkish television series debuts